DARIO FRANCHITTI tested for Jaguar last week at Silverstone but failed to set any startling lap times and we hear that the possibility of the Scotsman getting a ride with the team in F1 next year is looking increasingly remote despite the fact that Johnny Herbert has made it quite clear in recent days that he has no intention of staying with the team and is heading off to CART in the United States.

MCLAREN have insisted that they were 'disappointed' and 'surprised' at the race stewards' decision on Tuesday to fine the team $50,000 and deduct 10-points from their constructors' championship standings, but will not appeal against the ruling.

THE confirmation that Peugeot has sold its Formula 1 operation to an Asian consortium called Asia Motor Technologies brings to an end Peugeot's disastrous involvement in the sport with no wins in seven years of competition.

JACQUES VILLENEUVE'S decision to stay at British American Racing comes as something of a surprise for the Formula 1 community and it is being seen as an indication that the Honda Motor Company must have made a commitment to Villeneuve that British American Racing will not be allowed to get into financial trouble if British American Tobacco scales down its involvement in the sport.

THE three-way battle for the Drivers' World Championship is set to continue unabated in this weekend's German Grand Prix after FIA stewards yesterday confirmed Mika Hakkinen's victory in Austria - despite the fact that an official seal was missing from the electronic control unit of his winning McLaren-Mercedes MP4/15.

MIKA HAKKINEN'S Austrian Grand Prix victory has been allowed to stand after the Federation Internationale l'Automobile (FIA) ruled the team had not benefited from the missing seal on the electronic control unit of his McLaren-Mercedes car.

JENSON BUTTON'S prospects of sustaining the momentum of his F1 career after he leaves Williams have brightened considerably after Jacques Villeneuve wrong-footed the grand prix community by signing a 40 million pound, three year extension to his current contract with British American racing.

THE Federation Internationale l'Automobile (FIA) are keeping the location of McLaren's hearing on Tuesday, into the alleged infringements on the electronic box of Mika Hakkinen's Austrian Grand Prix-winning car, under wraps.

TOYOTA has appointed Mr. Tsutomu Tomita as Chairman of Toyota Motorsport GmbH, the motorsport subsidiary responsible for the Toyota F1 program which will make its competition debut at the start of the 2002 FIA Formula 1 World Championship.

THE rumors that a consortium of automobile manufacturers are trying to buy a shareholding in Formula One is not a surprise given the recent agreement between Bernie Ecclestone and the FIA for the commercial rights to the World Championship to be leased for 100 years.

RUMBLINGS of discontent amongst F1 teams regarding Bernie Ecclestone's increasing stranglehold on the FIA World Championship look set to be silenced if five of the world's major motor manufacturers eventually decide to purchase a one-third stake in Bernie Ecclestone's SLEC empire.

MIKA HAKKINEN and the McLaren-Mercedes team will probably have to sweat it out for over another week before they know whether the Finn's 16th career Grand Prix victory - secured in Austria before the question of the missing FIA seal on the car's electronic control box arose - can finally be confirmed.

FORMER Jaguar Chairman Jackie Stewart, who originally talked about a test with Dario Franchitti last year, was impressed by the Scot's performance at Silverstone this week, but commented; "we haven't got a definitive list yet of candidates under consideration for next year.

IT is worth noting that there is a major restructuring of management going on at Goodyear with Bill Sharp, the head of the company's North American operations (and the man who made the decision to pull the company out of Formula 1 back in 1997) stepping down at the age of 58.

GERMAN companies have become increasingly important in Formula 1 in recent years with DaimlerChrysler, West, BMW, Alliaz, Deutsche Post, Becks, Warsteiner and others all keen to be part of the boom in interest in F1 since Michael Schumacher became the top name in the sport in 1994.

THERE have been increasing rumors in recent days that the chairman of Minardi sponsor Telefonica, Juan Villalonga, may have to stand down from his position because of discontent amongst the companies institutional investors.

TOBACCO has been the biggest supporter of motor racing since the late 1960s but the pressure on cigarette companies continues with another huge award of damages last week in a Miami court where a jury decided that the tobacco companies should pay $145 billion in punitive damages in what is known as "a class action" brought by thousands of individuals suffering from smoking-related illnesses.

THE plot thickens at Prost Grand Prix with the team's future becoming more and more like a bad soap opera. While Peugeo has been trying to buy the team with a deal involving the Vivendi company, Alain Prost appears to be working in direct opposition to his current engine supplier.

THERE was considerable speculation at the Austrian Grand Prix which suggested that Jacques Villeneuve may decide to say at British American Racing next year rather than take up an offer to join Benetton in 2001 and then lead the new RenaultÊFormula 1 team in 2002.

JENSON BUTTON could join Jacques Villeneuve in the Benetton-Renault line-up for the 2001 season if Flavio Briatore has a major re-shake of his driver line-up and dispenses with Giancarlo Fisichella and Alexander Wurz.

JAGUAR is aiming for an upsurge in its F1 performance starting at this week's Silverstone test when an extensively upgraded Cosworth V10 engine will be evaluated in preparation for a possible race debut in the next race at Hockenheim.

IT'S TRUE! Bernie Ecclestone has pulled off the deal of his life it emerged yesterday when it became clear that his F1 management group has extended its stranglehold on grand prix racing's commercial rights for another 100 years beyond their current expiry in 2001.

THE Sunday People newspaper in London has reported that David Coulthard's air crash in May may not have been an accident and has linked the crash at Lyons-Satolas airport - in which the two pilots of the jet were killed - to a similar one involving the jockey Frank Dettori a few weeks later.

FORMULA 1 teams are once again discussing whether or not to change the format of Grand Prix weekends and whether or not to increase the ban on testing, in an effort to cut down on costs. A number of different proposals have been made, including a ban on all testing at Grand Prix venues between races but an extension to the running allowed on Friday at each track.

THE announcements at Magny Cours that Honda is to supply works engines to Jordan in 2001 and that McLaren is to retain DavidÊCoulthard and Mika Hakkinen have meant a little movement in the F1 driver market for next year and the next major announcement is expected to be the re-signing of Heinz-Harald Frentzen by Jordan for 2001 and 2002.

RICK GORNE, the marketing brain behind Reynard Racing Cars, who spent the 1999 season as Race Operations Director of BritishÊAmericanÊRacing, is rumored to be looking to branch out to establish his own racing car production business.

ALTHOUGH Eddie Jordan recently announced a factory engine deal with Honda, there is no doubt that in the longer term Jordan is still looking for a major partnership with a car manufacturer - and Honda is unlikely to be that company as the Japanese firm is still intent on having its own F1 operation. Jordan could sell his team to Honda but discussions along these lines failed in 1999 and there are no signs that Jordan has lost his taste for the bright lights of F1 racing.

THE new Lausitzring in the old East Germany is beginning to worry the existing German circuits and last week's announcement that the track is listed on the 2001 CART calendar - with a provisional date of September 16 (the same day as the ItalianÊGP) - has underlined that the local authorities are serious about grabbing Germany's top motorsport events.

THE strained relationship between Mark Webber and the Arrows team is understood to have ended with Webber's manager PaulÊStoddart of the European Arrows Formula 3000 team having cancelled the contract because agreement could not be reached between the young Australian driver and Tom Walkinshaw's team.

THERE are whispers in the Formula 1 world that Toyota has found someone to run its Formula 1 operations in Cologne and that the person in question will be able to attract a large number of British engineers to join the team which is currently being put together in Germany.

RALF SCHUMACHER described his day's work in testing at Estoril's Autodromo Fernanda Pira da Silva circuit as "productive" as BMW-Williams aim to continue a good run of form in the Austrian Grand Prix next weekend.

ALTHOUGH it was not officially announced at the French Grand Prix we understand that Automobiles Peugeot has decided that it is not going to sell its Formula 1 technology to a third party as had been discussed and is planning to buy a FormulaÊ1 team instead and run the operation itself.

THE announcement that Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard are to stay with the McLaren team and the expected news that JacquesÊVilleneuve is to move to Benetton and Juan-Pablo Montoya to Williams is likely to get the Formula 1 driver market moving in the weeks ahead.

OUR spies in the F1 paddock suggest that Flavio Briatore is planning to shock the F1 world by announcing that he has signed JacquesÊVilleneuve and Jenson Button to drive for the Enstone team in 2001 and 2002.